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NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: It's not good news for IT cities. According to a report prepared by the Computer Emergency Research Team from the Union IT ministry, a total of 692 websites have been affected in September alone.

The unit has now asked the respective state governments to secure their own websites. "We have instructed all state governments to instal security measures, especially for those sites which contain sensitive data,'' said a senior ministry official.

According to sources almost all types of websites have been affected—dotcom , dotin, dotgovt and even dotedu . "In all, a total of 511 websites in the domain of dotin have been affected—a whopping 74% of all those affected . Twenty per cent of the websites are in the dotcom domain. In our own information technology department , a total of 63 attacks have been reported. Curiously , 21 of these attacks have come from hackers based in China,'' said a senior government official.

Sources in the ministry say hacking has been carried out through several methods. "The most common method is to try and steal the password from the administrator or even get the user password. Another method is to try and enter the FTB or web server and destroy the site. If successful, the hacker can completely destroy the website. Another method is to try and 'poison' the URL,'' added the official.

The police said they have received complaints of hacking from the military, paramilitary , defence ministry and educational institutions. "However, it is a technical field that needs a lot of expertise . We are not yet equipped to handle such pressure ," an official said.

Caught In a Net

Of the websites hacked, a whopping 74% belong to the dotin domain Most common hacking method is to steal password from administrator Hackers also enter web server and destroy the site Another method is to try and poison the URL.